What He Left
by Cyanide 6
Summary: When Ulrich does the unthinkable, his grief stricken remaining friends are left to cope with things. Five years later, things begin to resurface, and they are faced with questions whose answers are resurfacing. Rated T for violence and mild language. R
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, I don't know if anyone remembers this story, but it was up for quite a bit. Just recently, though, I noticed it had disappeared. Like, gone. I didn't remove it, and am very frustrated at its unprecedented disappearance. If anyone knows how or why a story could have disappeared, or if one of theirs had done the same, please PM me!**

**On with the show!**

_._

_._

"I'm not leaving this room until I know what's up."

"Okay, what have I got to lose? I'm already in over my head, so I might as well tell you."

.

How Yumi wished he had never said those words.

It had been five years since Ulrich had brutally and senselessly murdered Jeremie.

Some of her classmates were surprised she was still grieving, but no one ever said anything. The one person who did had regretted it.

"Hey Miss Misery!" A girl from a few rooms over had called. Yumi had ignored her. "Oh get over yourself! You're not still mourning some thirteen-year-old are you?"

Yumi had nearly been expelled from her college after the girl was sent to the hospital, unconscious. Now people just avoided her.

She sighed, staring out the window. Odd and Aelita were coming to visit later that evening. Odd was coming from Italy, Aelita from France. Both had been accepted into prestigious colleges. Aelita for intellect, Odd for art. Yumi stared at herself in a mirror. Her hair she had chopped short in a fit of fury when it had gotten in her eyes. She kept it that way, now she didn't need to tend to it, she just needed to chop it off now and then.

She began cleaning up her room. It wouldn't do to have Odd see her room in such conditions. Aelita wouldn't care, but then again, Aelita didn't care about anything much anymore.

.

"Hey Yumi!" Odd called. Yumi waved the two over as they made there way across the campus. Odd had aged the nicest of the three. He was tall, six feet, and had filled out nicely, no longer the scrawny boy, now a handsome man.

Aelita on the other hand, looked awful, as always. Her hair hung lank and greasy past her waist, and she was bone thin. She looked tired and worn. She gave Yumi a small smile.

Odd had been able to get over things the best. Though he would never forget Jeremie, he had managed to live past him.

Aelita found this impossible. Jeremie was the first human contact she had had, he freed her from the supercomputer, he did everything for her.

When the girls used to get together and sleepover at Yumi's house, they would talk about the boys. Aelita had talked about how she was worried that Jeremie just had a puppy crush on her and that he wasn't really serious. Aelita talked about them getting married, what she'd wear, who she'd invite, what jobs she thought they would each get, names for their children. She couldn't picture life without him, she had never thought she would have to.

"Hey," Aelita said, quietly.

"Come on upstairs, I'll show you around." Though they had been to the college before, it had a huge campus, and there was always something new being built.

They walked around, chatting about things.

"Yo, Yumi!" She heard the voice, belonging to someone who she had recently been arguing with.

"Yo," he called, "who's the pink-haired hobo?"

Yumi threw a pitying glance at Aelita. She no longer cared about her looks, wearing the same dirty black sweats and sweater for days on end, and going weeks without washing her hair.

Aelita turned dull eyes on the boy. Yumi turned back to him, eyes narrowing.

"Hey, Yumi, self-control, remember?" Odd said, cautiously. Yumi sighed. She'd need to practice, she had to get her temper under control.

"There wouldn't be a pink-haired hobo," she hissed to Odd, "if I hadn't been stupid."

"Stop it," he growled. "We've been over this, it wasn't your fault-"

"IT WAS! I could've-"

"Yumi, stop." Aelita's voice came quiet but forceful. The two met eyes. Yumi felt hers welling with tears. Aelita's eyes followed suit.

"Come on, let's go to your room." Odd led the girls from the open courtyard up to Yumi's room.

"Do you two have a place to stay?" Yumi asked, as Aelita sat staring into space. The pinkette nodded.

"Yeah, we're staying with a friend of ours. We don't wanna be a burden."

"You sure? I feel bad about having you guys not stay here."

"We're sure. Besides," his voice dropped to a whisper and leaned over, "Aelita doesn't like staying over with you. It reminds her of old times." He straightened up and ran a hand through his short hair, a habit he had picked up years ago when he first cut it.

The three ate dinner together and talked about school. Odd was able to get a laugh from Aelita as he told some story about a girl he had met. Yumi smiled. **Some** things never change.

.

"See ya tomorrow!" Odd called.

Yumi waved. "See ya!" She called back.

Once back in her room Yumi began her work. Once finishing she began deep cleaning her room, anything to avoid sleep. She knew the dream would come, same as it did every time they visited. The dream of that day, when she sat by and watched her friend be murdered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, so this chapter is sorta gory. If you don't want to read it, I'll put a brief summary at the bottom of the flashback/dream.**

_Yumi blinked blearily from where she sat slumped on the ground. Around her, the world seemed to shift hazily. She assumed she was dreaming._

"_Hey Ulrich," Jeremie said, entering the room. "You said you had computer problems?"_

_Ulrich glanced at Jeremie, an odd look in his eyes. "Yeah, over there." He pointed at the computer on the ground._

"_What's it doing down there?" Jeremie asked. Yumi realized that they were in Ulrich's dorm room. She realized that Odd was on a date. She remembered following Ulrich up here._

"_I didn't even know you **had** a computer Ulrich, where did this come from? Is it a gift?" Jeremie sat down and began working on it. Behind him, Ulrich closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, they burned with a mix of apathy, pity, and loathing. He pulled out a knife and advanced on the figure working on the computer._

"_Ulrich?" Jeremie turned around. His eyes widened at he put his left arm up, just in time to have Ulrich's knife embedded in it._

_Jeremie's face drained of any color. His arm fell slack to his side as he gasped for breath._

_He looked up at Ulrich, a bewildered look in his eyes. He began to struggle to his feet._

"_U-Ulrich?" He stammered. He began to back away as Ulrich advanced._

_Ulrich struck, kneeing him under the chin and coming down hard on his head. As Jeremie fell to the ground, Ulrich yanked the knife from his arm._

_Jeremie collapsed on the ground, dazed. The tears from his eyes mixed with the stream of blood running down his head, and more trickled from his mouth. He gasped for breath, and began scrambling away from Ulrich, who lurched at him, landing an indirect stab with his knife on Jeremie's back._

_Jeremie gave a shriek and a moan. Yumi could see that the blow wouldzxz, in time, be fatal, but it wasn't enough to kill him now._

_Jeremie reached his uninjured right arm back and pulled the knife out. He was trembling, breaths coming in slow, ragged breaths. He, again, was able to get to his feet; years of fighting X.A.N.A attacks on Earth had given him the endurance to stand up, even under such conditions._

_Yumi looked at Jeremie, white faced, tears and blood streaming down his face, haggardly gasping as he tried to draw breath into his punctured lungs, left arm badly gashed. She felt nothing._

_Ulrich slid to the floor, and executed a reverse scissor-kick; instead of kicking Jeremie's legs so they would buckle, he kicked them so they would break._

_Jeremie's trembling legs gave way, and he crumpled to the floor, the knife he was holding slamming into his right hand._

_He screamed and tried to pull himself away from Ulrich. His eyes seemed to bug out in pain, as he tried to pull himself away with his good arm. Ulrich pulled out the knife out and kicked Jeremie onto his back._

"_P-p-please," was all Jeremie could make out before Ulrich began relentlessly stabbing him in the chest._

_Six times he stabbed, before the ragged breaths finally stopped._

_Yumi blinked up at Ulrich, as if through a haze. She made her way over to Jeremie, clumsily feeling for a pulse._

_None._

_As his blood ran down her fingers, something snapped, driving whatever it was that was blurring her thoughts away._

_Her eyes met Ulrich's, and he threw his knife, driving into her foot. Yumi ignored it and got to her feet. Ulrich hoisted Jeremie's lifeless body over his shoulder and bolted._

_Yumi tore after him. 'This is wrong' she thought. 'This can't be happening! I have to fix this somehow."_

_She ran after him, through the sleeping dorms and out into the rainy night, ignoring the pain in her foot. All that was going through her head at the time was that she could fix this, if she could just catch up._

_They ran through the forest._

_Ulrich was gaining a lead on her as the adrenaline began to wear off and Yumi's foot began to throb. She still ran, even though there was no hope of catching him now._

_She ran until she lost sight of them, and then she kept running, her tears mixing with the rain. She ran, the wind whipping her hair, lightning her only light._

_Finally, her leg gave way, and she collapsed, sobbing._

"_**ULRICH!"** She screamed. **"HOW COULD YOU?"** Tears streamed down her face as thundered crashed overhead. "**I'LL KILL YOU! I SWEAR!"**_

_She looked down at her hands, which were still wet with Jeremie's blood. "J-Jeremie," she whispered. "J-Jeremie," she said, louder._

"_**!"**_

_._

**For anyone who didn't read that part, Yumi watched, in a sort of stupor, as Ulrich killed Jeremie, then she was able to shake off the stupor, and chased Ulrich through the forest. Also, Ulrich had stolen Jeremie's body.**

**.**

Yumi sat up from her dream.

They told her in wasn't her fault. Later, when she reported what had happened, the paramedics told her she had been drugged, so that she would not be able to fully comprehend what was going on.

It didn't matter. She had sat there while he killed Jeremie, and she had done nothing.

Yumi had never told anyone, but she had sworn to herself that she would protect Jeremie, no matter what.

They had all been in charge of protecting Aelita; Ulrich and Odd could defend themselves, but Jeremie, who was never in Lyoko, was always at risk.

Yumi had sworn that she would protect him, since everyone else felt Aelita was the only one who needed protecting.

Now he was dead, and Yumi had not only failed in protecting him, she had watched as he was killed.

Yumi had sworn, since then, to never stand by and watch as someone else was hurt.

She had gotten into a fair amount of fights this way, but she had become a better fighter. No one beat her in a fight anymore.

She had never told the details to anyone, especially Aelita. It ws all the pinkette could do to keep going each day, she would never be able to take the full details.

Odd, well, Odd didn't need to know. It would be too hard to retell.

The images still burning in Yumi's head, she went down to the gym, which was always open.

She began practicing fighting. She was pursuing a career as a bodyguard. It fit both her strengths and her will to protect. It was also a venue that she had interest in; she would travel with whomever she was assigned to.

She kicked and punched the bag, letting out her pent up emotions.


	3. Chapter 3

**Three**

In the shadows, in the forest outside Yumi's college, a tall, dark figure was waiting.

Impatient he began pacing. He hated being here, it reminded him too much of things.

He didn't have to wait long. Soon another figure stepped out from behind the trees. Tiny and pale, so to seem nearly luminescent in the moonlight.

"You kept me waiting long enough," the first one growled.

A tinkling laugh greeted that. "You're too impatient," the female voice soothed. "You always have been."

"It's been years, how much longer am I expected to wait?" He asked.

"Wait for what? You can leave any time you want. You're not doing this for me…"

He glared. It was true, but that didn't make her infuriating slowness any more bearable.

His eyes fell away, not wanting to make eye contact. Instead they fell on the pink glowing amulet, that bound her. _That binds her to me,_ he thought.

He fingered the blue ring that glowed faintly on his finger. He sighed. "I hate this… arrangement. Couldn't we have down this any other way?"

Her voice grew solemn. "Do you think, for one minute, that if there was an easier way I would have required you to do what you've done? I understand the hardships you've gone through, living away from your parents, living in discomfort, living without basic comforts, always on the run-"

She was skating around the issue. His glare silenced her, and she laughed again.

"Or is this about her? You told me you and her were 'just friends', and didn't mind leaving. Was it because you hurt her? I heard she needed lots of stitches and a month in a cast from what you did to her foot."

He snapped forward, as if to slap her. He stopped an inch away, knowing how futile this would be.

"Relax," she instructed. "Remember, she hates you, and always has. Remember that they used you. Remember that he was after Yumi all along."

A few minutes later the emotion displayed across his face had disappeared. It was that easy.

He was uncomfortable with how easy it was becoming, but before he had time to further think on it, she interrupted his thoughts.

"Good, now on to business. I've already showed all that needs to be done. Is there any questions that you have or comments that you wish to discuss?"

"You're a terrible mother. All these years have made their mark."

"I'll take that as a no. You know what you have to do, then?"

"I'm on it."

"Excellent. You know how much I count on you. But soon we'll be done, and won't that be a relief?"

He didn't answer, he was already calculating a strategy.

"I'll see you after," she said, before leaving.

Ulrich nodded. He spun the ring on his hand once more, before disappearing into the forest.

.

Odd walked through Yumi's college. She hadn't been in her room, which was understandable, what with it being eight already. But, she wasn't at breakfast, which Odd didn't find understandable at all. Odd still had a ravenous appetite.

"Hey!" He called to a passing girl.

She turned, giving him an appraising look, before laughing. "Dump the creepy girl, babe! Then we'll talk." She began to walk off.

"I'm confused, how can I dump you if you want to talk afterwards."

She didn't get it at first, then she bristled and stormed off. Odd sighed. Poor Aelita had been the recipient of many jabs over the years.

"You need to work more on your appearance," he told her for the umpteenth time. She nodded, which basically meant that she'd take a shower and run one load of laundry before giving up on it.

"Have you seen Yumi?" He asked a student.

"Check the gym," she said. Her eyes were sympathetic. "She always goes there to vent when she gets too down."

"Thanks!" Odd said, before heading toward the gym.

Inside they found Yumi, executing a series of hits on a poor punching bag.

"HIY-YAH!" She cried.

THWACK!

"Yumi!" Odd called over.

She stopped, panting slightly.

"Odd, Aelita! Come on over!"

The two made their way across the gym.

"Sorry, I should have left a message. I couldn't sleep."

"You've been here all night! Don't you sleep!"

She shook her head. "You really haven't changed since Kadic, Odd." She said, swatting at him teasingly. "You're the same lazy Odd we've always known."

"Ah, but what you call laziness, I call artistic genius!"

"You would," she muttered, grinning.

"So if you've been here all night, then you haven't eaten yet! Let's go get breakfast!"

The three headed off. "She get any sleep last night?" Yumi whispered to Odd.

"Not according to Elizabeth." The two had bunked at Odd's sister's apartment while visiting. "I swear, it's like she channel's him."

Yumi spared a sympathetic glance at Aelita. "You didn't give her any pictures, did you?"

Odd's eyes darted away from Yumi's, confirming her fears.

"It was only Mr. Puck! It wasn't Jeremie or anything."

Whenever Aelita got too down, Odd used to draw her pictures of Jeremie, her and Jeremie, the group together… They would initially comfort her, but they also brought her into deep bouts of depression, and Yumi knew it couldn't be good for Aelita to live like that.

"Well, Mr. Puck's bad enough. Ever since someone stole him, she's been down."

It sometimes felt like someone had it out for Aelita, but not the way XANA did. Someone seemed to be tormenting her, first her laptop vanished, then the pictures she and Jeremie took the first night she was out of the supercomputer. Next went Franz Hopper's diary, then bit by bit, all memorabilia from the Hermitage went missing. Then Mr. Puck.

Needless to say, this had a devastating effect on Aelita.

At breakfast, the three chatted about how things were going at their schools. Odd, as usual was the most chatty, then Yumi, with Aelita making an occasional comment.

"Yumi, would you mind if I brought some things of mine to your room?" Aelita asked. "While we're here, I feel they'd be safer there."

"Sure, do you have them on you?"

Aelita handed her things, a few computer chips and a small picture, over to Yumi.

"Be back in a minute," she promised, before setting off.

As she ran to her room, Yumi wished, not for the first time, that Aelita lived closer. Yumi hated the idea of jerks stealing her stuff because she was so easy to take from, and Yumi worried about her living alone.

She stashed the stuff on her bureau, and left the room, locking the door behind her. She wasn't halfway down the hall before she realized there was something left in her pocket, the picture, which she had forgotten.

She set back to her room.

.

_Meanwhile_

Ulrich hung on the wall outside Yumi's room. The dorm building's modern architect made it easy to scale without using any form of tools. Also, the building faced the forest, so it was unlikely that he'd be spotted. He heard Yumi enter the room. He held his breath, and a few seconds later, the door closed.

He quickly slipped into her room, and saw that she had left the information he needed in plain sight.

He began counting them, pocketing them, when he heard the key enter the lock. He whipped around to leave, when he tripped over a pair of shoes.

.

Yumi heard the sound of someone tripping in her room, so she gave up on her key, which had gotten stuck, and kicked the door down.

At first she saw an unrecognizable figure in the room. Then she noticed Aelita's stuff was missing.

Then she saw his eyes, and her blood ran cold.

He leapt out the window, shimmed down the wall, and raced for the forest.

Yumi followed hot on his trail, racing after him. Years of practice left him strong, fast, and agile, as had her years of training.

They ran through the forest. Years of practice and training had given both incredible endurance, and they tore through the forest for nearly an hour. Yumi's fury gave her an edge, and she was eventually able to catch up to Ulrich.

The two locked into fighting stances, and Yumi was soon able to gain the upper hand.

"**I SAID I WOULD KILL YOU!"** She screamed. "**DID YOU THINK I WOULDN'T?"**

She drove him into the ground, ready to land a finishing blow on the back of his head, when suddenly she was thrown off him, as if hit by an electrical blast.

Yumi leapt up from the ground, catching her breath. She whipped around to find herself face to face with a hooded figure, holding an electric field in one hand.

"One move," she whispered, "and you die. It's your choice."

Yumi froze. It had been so long since she had seen someone with an energy field, and yet, this was most defiantly not XANA's.

Tears welled up in Yumi's eyes. Blinking them away she turned to Ulrich, who was standing up.

"Why?" Yumi whispered, the tears refusing to go away. "Why? He was-was your-your friend."

Ulrich shot her a filthy look, before setting off.

The cloaked figure addressed Yumi. "Three minutes, then you can leave."

The two walked off. Yumi counted to 180, before turning and heading back to the school.

.

"Where were you?" Aelita flung herself at Yumi the instant she was back on school grounds. "I was so worried." Her eyes spilled over with tears as she hugged Yumi. "Where have you been?"

Yumi looked at Aelita. "Aelita, I'm sorry, someone stole your things. I-I tried to stop them, but they got away. I'm really sorry."

Aelita nodded. "Just so long as you're safe. I was so worried. It was like you went to your room and-and disappeared!"

Yumi pulled the picture out of her pocket. "Here." She handed it over. It was the one picture Aelita had kept safe from prying fingers, fingers, which Yumi now realized, belonged to Ulrich.

Odd walked over. "Who was it?" He whispered to her.

Yumi exchanged a glance.

"Ulrich," she whispered back.


	4. Chapter 4

**Four**

Odd sat with Yumi in the cafeteria. Aelita had disappeared off to Yumi's room, requesting to be left alone.

Odd sighed. "Yumi, what do you suppose made him do it?" He asked, out of the blue. Or not so out of the blue, considering what had happened a few hours earlier.

Yumi sighed, staring at her uneaten meal. "Steal Aelita's stuff? I don't know. It just seems so unexpected. But, then again, I guess he's always been stealing herself, we just didn't know it was him. So, maybe he just can't-"

"No no," Odd shook his head. "I don't mean this. I mean-I mean, kill him, all those years ago."

Yumi froze. She sucked in a breath. "I don't know. And, know what? I don't care. Nothing Jeremie could have done would deserve that."

Odd frowned. "You're right, of course. Still, maybe he… maybe it was an accident…" He trailed off at the look on her face.

"An accident?" Her voice dripped with disbelief. "An accident? You don't kill someone like that accidentally."

"No, no, no, that wasn't what I meant. I meant, like, you know, flash of anger type things."

Yumi snorted.

"Well," Odd said, "people don't just kill their best friends, not friends they've been through so much with. It wasn't X.A.N.A., he'd already been shut down. He wasn't crazy, we'd been evaluated at school that morning. So, maybe it was just some unintentional."

Yumi glared at him. "You don't kill someone like **that** accidentally. You don't torture someone like that accidentally. You don't…" Yumi's eyes welled with unwilling tears as the dream resurfaced.

Odd's face went blank.

"What?" He whispered, hoping he had misheard.

"He stabbed him like ten times, all over, and broke his legs, and… I don't want to talk about this." She got up and left, probably to vent in the gym.

Odd just sat there, feeling like he had been hit in the stomach. For years afterward, Odd had kept going with the knowledge that his friend had suffered a quick, fairly painless death, the comfort that he hadn't even been aware of his friend's betrayal. Yumi had promised him that, and he had clung fast to that promise.

.

_Odd stormed back on campus. She dumped him! Why? Because he brought Kiwi on his date! She said she was a dog person, and he really thought he had found true love, but then she got all mad when he hopped on her lap during the movies climax, and tried to eat her popcorn._

_Odd was heading back, in the rain, past the forest, when he her crying. Scratch that, sobbing. He turned to the forest, and saw Yumi, limping out._

"_Yumi!" He called. He rushed over to her, helping her lean on him. His eyes fell down to her feet, where, in the light of the school, he saw a knife, embedded in her foot._

_She was sobbing uncontrollably, stuttering something about Jeremie and Ulrich._

"_Don't worry," Odd repeated, as he called 911, "don't worry, we'll get help for them too, don't worry. Oh, hello! Yes, I need some help… uh huh, at Kadic Boarding School. Yes, a knife wound in the foot. Uh huh, yes. And we have two friends who are also in the forest. … No, no I don't know, she didn't say… yeah, she's kinda hysterical. Great, she's uh screaming… oh, you can hear her? Yeah, I don't know what happened… Yeah, I hear the sirens… They're here, thanks, bye."_

_Odd clipped shut his phone, and gave Aelita, Ulrich, and Jeremie texts to meet him at the front of the school ASAP._

_The sirens made their way to the front of the school. Soon windows were opening, and Jim came jogging out front._

"_What's going on?" He bellowed. "Della Robbia, Ishyama, what are you doing out of bed?"_

_Aelita came running out front. "What's going on?" She panted._

_The EMs were running up to Yumi, who had dissolved on the ground, in tears._

_Jim was talking to the Police. "No, officer, I don't know who called you."_

"_Me! ME!" Odd called. "I called you."_

_They came over to Odd. "Well, you see, my friend, she's kinda upset. And she kinda has this knife, ya know, in her foot. And she seems to think that her friends, Ulrich and Jeremie are in trouble."_

_One turned to Yumi. "Where are your friends?"_

_She didn't even listen to him, she just kept crying._

"_We'll check the forest and-"_

_There was a scream from overhead in the dorms. Sissi had looked in Odd and Ulrich's room to find out what was wrong, and had run into quite a lot of blood._

_One of the police rushed up to see what the problem was. The EMs began to take Yumi away, and Odd and Aelita hopped aboard the ambulance._

_Once at the hospital, Yumi was brought to an emergency room, and Odd and Aelita waited in the hospital, overnight._

_Aelita left a message on Ulrich and Jeremie's phones, before falling asleep on one of the waiting couches. Odd read through all of the waiting room comics and magazines, before they were allowed to see Yumi._

_They entered the room to find Yumi, leg bandaged, staring sideways, tears slowly making their way down her face._

"_Yumi," Aelita said, gently, "what's going on? Where are the boys?"_

_To this Yumi took a shuddering breath. She looked them in the eye. "I'm sorry, I tried, but-but I couldn't stop him." Tears began streaming down her face. "Ulrich killed him! Oh, God, I'm sorry, but, Ulrich killed Jeremie!"_

_Aelita frowned, grabbing Yumi's hand. "Yumi, please, something's bothering you. You can tell us."_

"_I did!" Yumi whispered. "Aelita, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."_

_Aelita gave a frustrated sigh. She walked over to Odd. "Why is she saying that?"_

_Odd shrugged. He heard the words, but they meant nothing to him. Yumi was obviously upset, but what she said made no sense._

"_We'll talk to you later, Yumi," Odd said, taking Aelita's hand and leading her from the room. He felt… worried. Nothing too upset, but he was worried about Yumi's sanity._

_They went outside, when they were passed by two police, followed by a couple. They went in._

_Aelita sat outside, sitting in the waiting room, trying to get a message through to Ulrich or Jeremie._

_Odd continued to read the books, wishing he had brought a video game._

_Soon the door opened, and they heard crying from the couple as well as Yumi._

"_What's going on?" Odd asked, entering the room, perplexed at the behaviors._

_The policewoman turned to Odd. "You're a friend of hers?"_

_They nodded._

_She gave them a pitying look. "I'm sorry, but we've just received the new that your friend Jeremie was murdered._

_Silence met her statement._

_Aelita's mouth opened, as she glanced from the police, to Yumi, to the couple, who were Jeremie's parents._

_She took a step forward, a look of anger on her face._

_Then her face crumpled, and she collapsed on the floor, completely out of her head, sobbing and screaming._

_Odd frowned, bewildered. "No," he whispered. "N-no!" Tears began streaming down his face, as he tried to grasp the impossibility of the situation._

_A few paramedics entered the room, alerted by Aelita's uncontrollable hysterics. Her reaction made Yumi's look mildly upset._

_They brought her from the room, screaming and crying._

_Odd slid to the floor, slumped against the wall, trying to wrap his head around things. Jeremie, Einstein, their little genius, was… dead? Odd would never see him again. Never see the triumphant look when he succeeded in one of his endeavors, never see the weary look on his face when he pulled an all-nighter, never see him blush as Odd made fun of his crush on Aelita, never see his face light up when she walked in the room, never hear his voice, never hear him chat with them or flirt with Aelita or rebuke Odd or confide with Yumi, never…_

_Odd felt sick, like he was gonna throw up._

_He rushed to the bathroom, tears streaming down his face, and threw up._

_Odd sat, huddled on the floor, tears streaming down his face. How could Jeremie have survived X.A.N.A., only to have this happened to him?_

_After what felt like hours, he struggled to his feet and made his way to where the girls were, only to be told that Yumi didn't want to see him, and that Aelita was unconscious, put out by sedatives._

"_Th-th-then I'm going b-back," Odd turned, and made his way back to Kadic. He wasn't even aware of the strange looks that he received as he stumbled the few miles back to school._

_When he got there, he ran into Sissi._

"_What's going on?" She demanded._

_Odd looked at her, wearily. "Ulrich killed Jeremie," he mumbled._

_Sissi stared at him for a minute. Then she seemed to get that he was being serious._

"_Oh, Odd! I-I didn't know it was Ulrich…" she trailed off, before shaking her head, and taking a deep breath. "I'm so sorry. I-I… Here I'll help you find your new room. The police have-well they put yellow tape around your old one."_

_Odd nodded, as his eyes welled up with tears. Sissi led him to his new room._

_As they went, they passed by Jeremie's room. Odd froze, before reaching for the handle._

"_No," Sissi held his hand down. "You can go in there tomorrow, but not now. Take it from someone who lost her mother, you don't want to go in there now."_

_Odd nodded, feeling tears well up in his eyes again. He brushed them away, as to not be seen crying in front of Sissi._

"_I'm sorry," he whispered._

"_Don't worry about what people think. Now is the time for crying. That's what people expect."_

_Odd nodded, as the tears flowed down his face. Sissi led him to his room, an unoccupied one._

_Odd slumped down on his bed, as Sissi left. This didn't make any sense. How could Jeremie be dead? And Ulrich…_

_Odd couldn't believe it, and yet, it was true._

_Eventually, he fell asleep._

_._

_Odd's eyes flicked open. Where was he? This wasn't his room._

_Then it came back to him._

_Taking a shuddering breath, he got up. His grief again came crashing down on him, as he slowly made his way to Jeremie's room._

_As soon as he opened the door, he realized why Sissi had told him not to._

_Memories upon memories flooded back to him as he walked through the room. Everything, pictures, pencils, the computer, brought back a hundred memories of times they had spent there._

_After sitting on the bed for a few minutes, he couldn't take it anymore, and left, resolving to visit the girls._

_At the hospital, he went to see Yumi._

"_Hey," he said._

"_Hey," she whispered._

_Odd took a deep breath. "I know you don't want to talk about it, but I have to. How do you know? Maybe-maybe you didn't see right, or maybe your mind was playing tricks on you, or maybe-I don't know! The doctors did say that you were somehow drugged."_

_Yumi gave a heavy sigh. "Yes I was drugged, no it wasn't a hallucinogenic, so no, I didn't see wrong. Also, there was a security camera right outside the school that saw-that saw-that saw him. Both of them. They watched the security feed several times, to reach the conclusion. Also, the knife had his fingerprints on them." She took a gulp of air, and stared at Odd, a burning fury in her eyes. "Ulrich's fingerprints." The tears that were in her eyes spilled over slightly. "I'm gonna kill him Odd. I swear I am."_

_Odd blinked tears away, only succeeding in sending them down his face. "H-h-how did he do-do it?"_

_Yumi looked at Odd's tear streaked face, and looked away. "One quick stab," she whispered. "Jeremie didn't even know."_

That was what held Odd through the first few months. That was what he repeated to himself, even now, when he woke up with nightmares. Everyone thought he had just gotten over it, and in a way, he had.

He didn't let the loss dictate his life, as the girls had. The way Odd saw it, Jeremie had been so willing to risk his life so that people would be able to live their lives happily, and Odd knew that if Jeremie saw them moping morosely around their whole lives, he would feel all his sacrifices were a waste.

Still, this new bit of information hit Odd hard as he realized the foundation he had built his recovery from grief on was false.

He had to know the truth, the full details, even though he knew it would kill him.

"Yumi," he said, entering her room, after a knock, "I think you owe me an explanation."

.

Aelita stared at a photo in her hand. No, not a photo. A drawing. One Odd had made her. One of her and Jeremie, on their wedding day.

The picture was incredibly lifelike. The two looked joyous, and Odd and Yumi stood next to them, outside a church. Aelita was dressed in her dream gown, the one she had painstakingly designed, years ago. She held a bouquet of roses, the exact same pink as her hair.

Jeremie stood next to her. So perfect, so there, so _alive_.

But he wasn't alive here.

Aelita sighed, and put the picture away. She halfheartedly decided to go on a walk.

She gloomily made her way through the forest. In the back of her mind, she knew Odd and Yumi would disapprove of her wandering off, but she paid the thought no heed.

Unbeknownst to her, behind her lurked a robed figure, peering at her, creeping behind her.

Waiting, to set into motion what she had been planning for years.

**Yeah, I know, nothing really happens in this chapter. It's just a moping, morose, unhappy, gloomy flashback chapter, that probably could do with several proof readings. Still, I hope you review, and let me know what you think!**


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